BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 183 
ritory. The influence of Sir William secured to Geyer a warm recep- 
tion in the different forts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and enabled 
him to turn this journey to the greatest advantage. In the ‘London 
Journal of Botany,’ vol. iv. p. 479, Geyer has given an account of this 
interesting expedition, and shown how well he understood describing 
the various regions through which his march led him. On the 13th 
of November, Geyer left Vancouver’s Island, and touching at the 
Hawaiian group, he reached England in May, 1845, where he remained 
several months, residing at Kew, to arrange his collections of plants and 
other objects of natural history. In the following September he re- 
turned to Dresden. He looked at least twenty years older. Not being 
able to obtain a suitable situation, he bought a piece of ground at 
Meissen, and commenced a nursery. In leisure hours he gave lessons 
in systematic botany and the English language. During the last three 
years of his life he edited ‘ Die Chronik des Gartenwesens,’ a horticul- 
tural journal, which obtained considerable influence through its well- 
Written leading articles, almost all of which emanated from the pen of 
Geyer himself.—On the 21st November, 1853, he breathed his last, 
deeply lamented by all who knew him.” 
On Beech Oil; by WitnEtM E. G. SEEMANN. 
Amongst the various kinds of oil used in Northern Germany, espe- 
cially the kingdom of Hanover, for culinary purposes or as materials of — 
combustion, that extracted from the nuts of the Beech (Fagus sylvatica, —— 
Linn.) is, on account of its numerous good qualities, deserving of notice. 
Beech-oil does not play a prominent part in commerce, nor is it likely to 
do so, owing to the fact that it cannot be procured in large quantities ; : 
the country-people who collect the nuts, or cause them to be collected, — 
use the greater part of the oil extracted from them in their own house- 
hold, and only dispose of the remaining fraction. This is the reason * 
Why it is impossible to give even a rough estimate of the quantity - 
annually produced. About Hanover the nuts are gathered towards m 
the end of October or the beginning of November; this is done either — 
by picking up by hand those which have fallen to the ground, or by - 
spreading out large sheets under the trees and beating the branches with 
poles, so as to cause the nuts to separate from them. The latter pro- — 
cess appears, at first sight, the least expensive; but as the good nuts have — 
